We are a small, happy family of four. My husband, a baby, a dog and me. My husband works on a yacht. A large, luxury megayacht which tends to be based in some fairly fabulous places. The thing is, where the boat goes, we go! When she was was just eight weeks old our daughter, Coco, boarded her first trans-Atlantic flight and since then we haven't stopped. This is a blog of our rather unusual yet adventurous life. No two days are the same.

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Thursday, May 3, 2012

I'm making a tentative return to my blog - which, by the way, should now be 'Babies, a buggy and a boat'. We are a family of five (including our beloved Buster) with the arrival of a beautiful, baby girl just six weeks ago.
So where have we been? Basically, I felt like a bit of a fraud. I had built this blog up to be a record of our adventures, our travels and an account of our rather unusual lifestyle, but this is the thing... we haven't been anywhere since I last posted nearly a year ago. When I say 'we' I mean me and my girl, now girls. Angus has still been sailing the high seas to earn a crust but the rest of the family have been on terra firma (apart from a very wet camping trip to France last summer which involved a quick ferry across the English Channel obviously). So A Baby, a Buggy and a Boat lost its identity. I didn't want to be just a parenting blog, there are plenty of much better ones out there, and I couldn't decide how to write anymore or what to write about. Where were our adventures now?
Then yesterday, whilst tearing my hair out during a 'short' trip to Waitrose that took nearly two hours, I realised that the whole thing is an adventure. I was 'popping' to the supermarket, a fairly simple task. I had a list of, oh about 15 things, not a big shop. Fairly manageable you would think. Baby Orla cried for the whole of the 10 minute car journey there. Coco and I decided that we'd head straight to the cafe for a cake (an excuse to feed but trying to keep things interesting for Coco). Parked, baby and toddler into the trolly, scoot through the supermarket to the cafe, baby and toddler out of the trolly, baby still crying, toddler running away from me all the time and needs constantly bribing with cake. The queue is fairly long and by the time we reach the till, Orla has fallen asleep. Coco and I sit and eat cake while I try and wake Orla enough to feed, which she doesn't, she is in a seriously deep sleep.
Just as we finish, Coco needs a wee (the potty training has regressed since Orla's arrival so I shower Coco in compliments for telling me she needs to go) and we all run to the loo. Whilst I am dealing with Coco, Orla wakes up... crying, so back to the cafe for a feed but by this time the last of our cakes and drinks have been cleared away and I have nothing to entertain a two year old for ten minutes so grab a CBeebies magazine en route back to the cafe. Feed. Both children back into the trolly. Do about half of my shop and then Coco needs the loo again. More compliments for her although through slightly gritted teeth. Out of the trolly, queue for the loo, into the trolly. Everyone is bored by now (including you I would imagine), Orla starts screaming, Coco is helpfully holding her hand over her mouth to keep her quite through suffocation. I'm trying to finish the shop which also trying to save the baby. Eventually we make it to the checkout, I've left my 'bags for life' in the car so guiltily pack my groceries into plastic which I want to tell everyone I WILL make use of, I promise and I swear to myself, right there and then, that I am internet shopping from here on in!